Creed II (2018)

I'm not going to lie, the only reason I was excited about Creed II was the perspective of seeing Michael B. Jordan and his muscles on the big screen. Thankfully, that was not the only good thing about the movie. 

Much like its predecessor, Creed II follows both the personal and professional life of Adonis Creed (Michael B. Jordan). Adonis has just become the Heavyweight Champion of the World and proposed to Bianca (Tessa Thompson) when Viktor Drago (Florian Munteanu), Ivan Drago's (Dolph Lundgren) son, arrives in Philadelphia and challenges Adonis. Against Rocky's (Sylvester Stallone) advice, Adonis accepts the challenge while trying to keep afloat his relationship as well as a new paternity. 

The film follows the same formula of the other Rocky movies and therefore the plot is predictable —the trailers completely gave it away anyways— and doesn't have anything new to offer —not to mention the several subplots that barely go somewhere. Despite this, the story is quite engaging and enjoyable. 

The characters too are better than expected. What I mean is that they shouldn't work and yet they do. They don't have much development and Adonis doesn't have any depth whatsoever —while he really grows as a person in Creed, he stays pretty much the same in here. Maybe he even takes a step back as he's the hothead he used to be—, but I still cared about them, even about Viktor Drago as him and his father have more development than Creed and Rocky put together. 

Michael B. Jordan gives another charismatic and energetic performance as Adonis Creed and truly carries the film on his (broad) shoulders. He is a bit overacting when it comes to the drama but, overall, he is believable. It also helps that his chemistry with Tessa Thompson is wonderful. As for the supporting cast, Russell Hornsby steals his scenes in the role of a boxing promoter and Phylicia Rashad gives another striking performance as Adonis' mother. 

Metro-Goldwyn-Meyer, Warner Bros. Pictures

At last but not least the fighting. These scenes are amazing as they look intense and realistic, and the final fight between Adonis and Viktor, although you already know how it will end, will keep you on the edge of your seat. It was also kind of emotional, just like when the Rocky theme came on.

Fahrenheit 451 (2018)

I read Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 last year and to say that I loved it is a little reductive. I'm not the only one who feels that way about Bradbury's novel and therefore turning it into a good movie was not easy. That said, I had high expectations for HBO's Fahrenheit 451 because of the network's resources and the cast, especially the cast. Unfortunately, it's a misfire.

Set in a distant future, when books are banned and firefighters, in order to destroy them, start fires instead of putting them out, the film follows Guy Montag (Michael B. Jordan), a young fireman who does his job without questioning believing that's the right thing to do. One day, while on his job, Guy witnesses something terrible and begins to question his task. 

While the basic plot points from Bradbury's novel are here, there are many changes --that Hollywood ending, seriously?!-- and some parts were completely left out which gives the film a feeling of incompleteness. In spite of that, the film was off to a good start. In fact, the first part is pretty engaging and enjoyable but eventually, the lazy writing took over and the story no longer interested me, it only bored me.

I did like, however, the filmmakers decided to make the story more suitable to our times by incorporating modern technologies, especially live streaming.  Still, I'm not sure having the internet in a story like this makes a lot of sense. And it also made it look like a Black Mirror episode. 

The characters are another problem as they completely lack development. Guy Montag's motives are not clear at all. Also, the filmmakers left out Montag's wife and replaced her with an uninteresting love interest which took away from the character a layer of depth --and it would have been much appreciated here. 

HBO

In spite of that, Michael B. Jordan still manages to carry the film and give a pretty good performance as the leading character. Michael Shannon's performance, on the other hand, is much greater. He once again gives an excellent performance as he truly captures the character of Captain Beatty and delivers the character's evil, satanic presence. 

In addition to Jordan and Shannon's strong performances, Fahrenheit 451 has quite beautiful visuals. It does feel like they were trying to replicate Blade Runner 2049 but the dark and gritty cinematography and the futuristic neon aesthetics are very beautiful to look at.

Black Panther (2018)

If you love comic book movies then I'm pretty darn sure Black Panther was/is one of your most anticipated movies of 2018. I was beyond excited for this --the cast being one of the many reasons-- and I'm very happy to say it did not let me down.

After the events of Captain America: Civil War (don't worry, there's a little recap at the beginning), T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman) is crowned king of Wakanda, the isolated but technologically advanced African nation he's from. But soon a powerful old enemy (Andy Serkis) reappears and T'Challa is forced to join forces with CIA agent Everett K. Ross (Martin Freeman) and members of the Dora Milaje, the Wakandan special forces, to prevent his country from being dragged into a war.

The overall plot is quite simple and rather predictable --there's some sort of twist though-- but it's got enough going on to keep you entertained and engaged from start to finish. Also, the plot is more serious than your average Marvel movie. As expected, politics play an important role in the story and an important message that can be applied to our world is delivered in a very effective way, which is something blockbusters usually fail to do.

But enough with the political side of the film. Let's talk about the truly surprising aspect of Black Panther, its characters. Though not all of them have a proper characterization or development, they feel real and really make you care about them and make you feel like you're part of Wakanda. T'Challa/Black Panther is a well-developed and likeable leading character and Chadwick Boseman gives a good performance, highlighting very well T'Challa's intelligence, sensibility and pride. Shuri, T'Challa's youngest sister and tech genius, is so sweet and witty, and Letitia Wright's performance truly elevates the character (and the film). Danai Gurira's Okoye, the head of the Dora Milaje, is such a badass, and Lupita Nyong'o's Nakia is a character that I'm definitely looking forward to seeing again.

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

However, my favourite character --and probably the best in the film-- was the villain. Someone at Marvel must have realised it was about time to focus a little bit more on their villains and here they finally deliver a memorable one. I'm talking about Michael B. Jordan's Erik Killmonger. The film explores his origins too, and although the development feels a bit rushed towards the end, we feel some sort of compassion for him and deep down we care about him --I hell did, and some of his scenes moved me. Also, this is a villain with an actual motivation. And at last but not least there's Jordan's strong performance which makes Killmonger my favourite Marvel villain along with Tom Hiddleston's Loki. I did have an issue with this though, he wasn't given enough screen time and the character becomes really relevant only in the second half.

Deserving a mention are the gorgeous cinematography, the score and the pretty awesome action (it's pretty obvious the filmmakers were influenced by Kingsman's action). I particularly enjoyed the sequence in South Korea (maybe because the bright colours, the music and all reminded me of a movie I love, Fast and Furious: Tokyo Drift). The CGI though doesn't look that good for a 2018 movie.